Charities Still Love Wall Street Bankers

The master of ceremonies made a mistake as he named John Thain one of the year’s best dads, introducing him as the chief executive officer of Citigroup. “Vikram Pandit will be very unhappy,” Thain responded, accepting an award from the Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council on June 14. “I’m actually the CEO of CIT, which is similar, but not quite the same.”

The confusion was understandable. Pandit was saluted by charities three times in June. And in the past two months more than a half dozen current and former bank chiefs have been honored in New York, including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman. On May 1, a day of international protests against Wall Street, Goldman Sachs Group President Gary Cohn accepted an award for the firm from Friends of the High Line, which supports the park on Manhattan’s West Side. Hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and slow-braised short ribs were served. Cohn said Goldman Sachs and its employees have given more than $6 million to the park. “Look, the whole idea of these things is to raise money for the charity,” said Thain in an interview after accepting his Father of the Year award. “The demonization of Wall Street and bankers is very much a function of the press and of Washington, and not much more broadly held.”